Aberdeen recently published a research report entitled “Jumpstarting Production Planning and Preparation.”   This research is timely because it focuses on design for manufacturing and activities related to process planning in the world of the model-based enterprise.  A few key extracts from the document:

“The creation of work instructions is another area the Best-in-Class approach concurrently with product development… They facilitate this approach by leveraging existing 3D CAD models to avoid recreating work. This also enables these manufacturers to start sooner by developing
Instructions as the design progresses.”

 

It was also insightful to discover that design for manufacturing (DFM) is still having a tough time getting a toe-hold in many engineering organizations:

“… despite the popularity of ‘design for manufacturability’ approach to product development, engineering’s inattention to the manufacturability of parts is the third most often reported challenge to manufacturing process planning”